5 Keys to Growing Your Online Brand as told by DJ Khaled

MAJOR ? ALERT: All you need to know about social media success can be found in DJ Khaled’s 10 second Snapchat videos. His daily ?s to success have easily became 2016’s favorite fad and after hours of binge watching his “greatest hits” on YouTube, I realized the cocoa-butter-obsessed, towel-wearing rapper has provided social media marketers with absolute gold. To prove it, here are five pieces of advice for growing your online brand, DJ Khaled style.

1. Keep a clean heart and soul:

Make sure your online brand is clean. Don’t engage in “Twitter fights.” Trolls aren’t worth it and fighting with them will get you nothing but a few favorites (and that’s assuming your comebacks don’t sound like a kindergartener). Having a clean heart and soul will propel you through the fire that is social media drama. Grow your brand by posting worthy content and, if you must, a few witty replies is all the sass you’ll need to keep followers.

2. Stay Focused:

This one is pretty obvious, but its importance is always worth mentioning. When spreading your message on social media, keep the focus on your brand. Don’t attempt to post the latest Pepe meme if you’re running a university’s Instagram. Instead, play into what’s popular but redirect the hype to what you want your audience to know. If it’s National Pizza Day, post about the awesome pizza your university’s cafeteria sells. Use pop culture to your advantage, but don’t pretend to be one of the teenagers — that’s Buzzfeed’s job.

3. There will be struggle before success:

Although this sounds like a corny Pinterest quote, take it to heart. The very first person to ever watch my Snapchat story was my mom. Now, I have over 300+ people taking time out of their day to see what’s going on in mine. Social media growth can be a slow and tedious process but maintaining a constant presence will get you over those bumps.

4. Take care of your plants:

Obviously your social media profiles are a lot different than DJ Khaled’s bromeliads, but hear me out. Your social media sites and greenery have a lot more in common than you might think. Both start out as a little seed, or a Twitter egg, then they get some sunlight and sprout, or gain some followers, and now they both just need to be watered regularly. When I say “water” your social media sites, I mean “make sure you update your content as consistently as possible.” Try to use your own images and make them coordinate with your brand, then your “plants” will grow to be as popular as DJ Khaled’s.

5. Enjoy life, because they don’t want you to enjoy life:

Although DJ Khaled has never named the infamous “they,” we can only assume “they” are the haters lurking in your comments section. Thankfully, the always positive producer has given us a comeback to the haters and the greatest online branding tip of all: enjoy life. Social media is where teenagers and adults alike go to shed their serious side. So keep your message lighthearted, uplifting and have fun — DJ Khaled said so.